How to open a delivery service. Profitable business: how to open a courier delivery service. Courier service business plan: list of documents and equipment. Delivery service

Courier delivery service is a growing area of ​​activity. As part of such a business, correspondence, various goods or gifts are transported. And this happens in a fairly short time.

The organization of a courier business is interesting in that it is possible to attract people with low qualifications or without it at all to provide such services. There are not so many companies of this kind at present. As a result, shipping costs are high. How to organize a courier service? The nuances of the development of this case should be reflected in a pre-drafted business plan.

Service market

The most powerful structure that delivers correspondence and cargo in our country is the Russian post. However, it is slow and unreliable. In this regard, most firms and companies try not to resort to its services.

A business plan that addresses questions about how to organize a courier service should contain information about the work of competitors. Existing postal services adhere to the rules approved by the International Postal Convention. They provide the weight of the shipment. It should not exceed thirty-two kilograms. If the order value does not exceed one hundred dollars, the fee is not charged.

When organizing a courier service, express delivery can be carried out with a cargo weight of up to several tons. In this case, all shipments are taxed. The bulk of courier services would like to have a license for postal transportation.

However, the Convention clearly defines national operator. In Russia, this is the Grandpost service, which operates in all towns and cities. This company is beyond any competition. In this regard, for sustainable development own business you can master the courier market within only one city.

Prospects for starting a business

If you are thinking about how to organize a courier service, then keep in mind that the business you open will only compete with small similar companies within a region or city.

In the event that the goods delivered by your service are larger in mass than CDs or books, you will need from ten to forty units of cars, a garage, an office and a warehouse to open your business. Some courier companies deliver only magazines and correspondence. In this case, it is enough to purchase one car and rent an office of two premises.

It should be remembered that this business is able to bring its owner a stable profit. That is why a novice entrepreneur should pay special attention to this business. In addition, the organization of a courier delivery service is not a very complicated process. This is due to the fact that this case does not require special education and professional skills. Significant start-up capital will not be needed here either.

The first steps

How to start a courier business? First of all, you need to decide on the place of activity. It should be borne in mind that it is most profitable to engage in delivery in large cities. Small settlements do not need large volumes of services, which will negatively affect the amount of income.

After that, it is important to decide what weight and dimensions of goods your courier service will take for transportation. This is due to different delivery terms. If the goods are classified as dangerous, a special certificate is required. Only in this case the process of transportation will be possible.

At the initial stage of development of the courier business, there will be a need to attract customers. To do this, you should turn to various methods of advertising and promoting the company.

State Selection

How to organize a courier service so that the business brings the desired income? You will need to invite a certain number of employees to work. At a minimum, the staff of the delivery service should include a dispatcher, as well as an accountant and a driver. If you plan to transport heavy parcels, then a loader is also needed.

For the selection of employees, it will be possible to resort to one of two options. The first of them recruits people with low salary(from two hundred to three hundred dollars a month). In this case, you will encounter constant staff turnover. However, the problem of recruitment will be easily solved due to the large number of applicants for a vacant position.

But it should be borne in mind that the quality of the services provided, and hence the reputation of the company, will depend on the level of remuneration. In this case, you can resort to the second option. How to organize the work of a courier on highest level? It is necessary to ensure that decent wages are strictly tied to certain rules and requirements.

Registration

How to organize a courier service in your city? You will need to choose the legal form of the company (usually it is an LLC), and then register it with the Tax Inspectorate for your area. This will allow you to conclude long-term contracts with customers without any problems. You will need to use the services of a lawyer. It will help in developing a contract template.

Room selection

The next step is to rent a room. It is necessary for basing the delivery service. Such a room can serve as a small office. For this purpose, some use a warehouse. It will also include office space. There should be parking nearby. There is no need for an expensive and bright sign. The delivery service should look for the client, and not wait for his arrival. It will take only a few signs for the building in which the courier service is located.

Initial capital

This business does not require large investments. However, some funding for a start-up organization will still be needed. You will need money for a car. A vehicle will be needed if it is not planned to hire employees with a personal car.

Starting a business from scratch is never easy. It is necessary to carefully consider every nuance in relation to the planned business. It takes a lot of effort, but the result will certainly please you. In this topic, we will describe a productive business idea.

The courier service is undoubtedly popular among the population. Delivery of goods is necessary for many firms, enterprises, institutions. Such a business is one of the inexpensive ones for a starting career and would be quite suitable for a novice entrepreneur. If you are interested in how to open a courier delivery service, our topic is for you.

It is known that today the choice of courier services is limited, so this type of service can be safely called in demand, relevant. Many post offices deliver the goods, however, many customers are not satisfied with the delivery time, which can be 3 days or more. Along with this, urgent applications issued by mail are very expensive.

If you are seriously thinking about how to open a delivery service, it's time to start a business! It is no secret that there is competition among many companies, including courier companies. The success of the delivery service depends on the quality of the services provided and the acceptability of prices.

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Identification of competition

Some delivery companies have a wide field of activity. Their branches can be located throughout the country in cities and towns. These companies deliver products in a matter of hours, since they have a large number of employees and cars in their arsenal. Such services are popular, they have proven themselves in the market of goods and services, have good reputation among partners and the general population.

One of the main business strategies is to identify such a competitor in your region. What is the need? The success of your future company directly depends on this. If a large reliable courier service is already open in your city, has a good reputation and a good name, people will continue to use its services. In the case when you are determined to compete with a similar company, you need to come up with some feature for your courier service that will serve as an advantage over a competing company. It can be around the clock work or affordability. It could be both. Find a good idea how to distinguish your company from the rest, how to interest a potential client.

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First of all, you should decide on the place where the company will be located. Ideally, it should be a regional center, a large city with a large number of people. In rural districts, such a business may not work. The reasons are obvious: a small number of companies, organizations, or even the absence of them. If anyone will use your services, it is extremely rare, ordering will be small. Accordingly, the business will not be profitable. Possible option. In a small town there are entertainment centers, cafes, restaurants. In this case, you can’t do without the help of a courier; people often order restaurant food at home. But still better in a big city.

The next thing to do when planning is to decide what types of cargo you intend to work with. Some companies are engaged in the delivery of paper documents, others deliver bulky goods not only within the city, but throughout the country. Some courier services are engaged in international transportation. Some companies deliver precious items. Decide on the areas where you will transport the goods - either within the city, or the region, or across the country. It directly depends on what kind of car a company should have, a car or a truck; one, two or three cars. To deliver documents within the city, the courier can also use public transport. You can also walk if the distance is short.

If you have already purchased a car, you should consider hiring a driver. And not only the driver. In general, you need to decide on the size and scale of your company, the number of staff, their workload, and the salaries of employees. Don't think that one courier will be enough. There must be at least 2 people, since one worker will not be able to cope with orders. You can hire a taxi driver with a personal car and one employee without a car. Thus, the company will have 2 couriers and 1 car, which is very convenient.

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The role of personnel in the work of the company

So, let's take a closer look at the work of personnel in the company. For a successful business organization, the company must have a director, an accountant, a secretary-dispatcher, couriers, technical staff. employees if you rented a room. The director's responsibility is to supervise all the affairs of the company. The secretary-dispatcher accepts applications, registers them, transfers them to couriers, informs the client about the location of the cargo and the time of delivery. Couriers carry out the instructions of the secretary, they must deliver the goods to their destination on time, safe and sound. The accountant is responsible for the work of employees, if necessary, makes comments to them, is responsible for the profits of the company. When an entrepreneur does not have the opportunity to organize such a staff, you can get by with a director, a dispatcher and couriers.

The working hours of the company are set at your discretion. The optimal time for delivery of goods is from 8 am to 5 pm. At the moment there are few services where couriers work at night. Work around the clock - good idea for business. Employees can work the night shift, which can start from 00:00 until 07:00. Depending on the ideas, you can implement the option of urgent delivery, which can be useful in emergency cases. Carefully consider whether you can hire employees who will work at night.

An important role in the reputation of a courier company is played by the quality of service and timely delivery of goods. What does quality of service mean? This is the ability of employees to communicate with customers in a friendly manner, to conduct a conversation competently, to be attentive when making an application, to take into account the desires and needs of customers in the delivery process. The ability of the courier to deliver the parcel quickly and on time, without damaging it, is the most important thing in the job. Try to hire decent, neat, polite, executive people. The dispatcher must be a person with good communication skills and correct diction. Encourage employees to understand each other and get along well with each other.

Opening a courier delivery service attracts entrepreneurs because it does not require large investments and experience in this field. However, this type of business, like any other, has its pitfalls and nuances. In the business plan, we will highlight the main aspects of this type of activity.

Objective of the project: making a profit by providing courier services to businesses and the public.

The attractiveness of a courier services business is determined by the following factors:

1. Low barriers to market entry.
2. Increasing demand for this type of service.
3. No eligibility requirements.
4. Wide opportunities for business development and scaling.

The amount of initial investment is 149,000 rubles.

The break-even point is reached on the 4th month of operation.

The payback period is 7 months.

The average monthly profit of the 1st year of the project implementation is 43,726 rubles.

2. Description of the business, product or service

3. Description of the market

Every day, many organizations and people resort to the services of courier services. Before opening a delivery service, it is necessary to determine which market segment will have to be served. Potential customers of the courier service are:

• online stores with delivery of goods;
• flower shops;
• cafes and restaurants;
• publishing houses;
• bookstores.

In the age of technology, online shopping is becoming more and more popular. However, not every organization offering a delivery service has its own staff of couriers. Most online stores resort to outsourcing, and they conclude contracts not with market giants, but with local small firms.

Flower shops are another large segment. Many of them are posted on social networks and offer delivery services. Not having their own courier on staff, they will gladly become your regular customers.

To date, there is not a single more or less large city in which there are not a large number of pizzerias, cafes, restaurants, pancakes and other various establishments. Catering. Most likely, the owners of such establishments will not refuse to have additional profit from the delivery of their dishes to customers at home. Therefore, the courier service can provide their delivery services.

Almost all large organizations need couriers to deliver various packages of documents to some government services. An example would be tax office. The courier from the delivery service will be able not only to deliver Required documents, but also stand with everyone in line. Thanks to such services, customers will be able to save their time, and you, as a business owner, will get additional profit.

4. Sales and Marketing

5. Production plan

The main goal of the project is to open a courier service and maximize its profits.

Overview of the real estate market for the selection of the optimal premises.

Requirements for the premises of the beauty elephant:

• Location: can be either the city center or a residential area;
• Room area 10-15 m2;
• Parking is desirable.

• Registration of a legal entity.

Activities can be carried out as individual- IP, and entity- OOO.

• Opening a current account.

6. Organizational structure

Staffing schedule:

• manager - 1,
• couriers - 2-4,

The total number of employees is 3-5 people.

As a rule, the owner of the business acts as the manager in such a small company. The salary is set at 30,000 rubles. Wage couriers piecework and is 30% of completed orders. In the first 2 months, it will be enough to hire 2 couriers, however, with an increase in customers, the staff will need to be expanded.

Responsible staffing needs to be taken into account. After all, only serious and diligent workers will help to get good feedback about the company as a whole. If you do not have experience in the provision of courier services, then it is all the more desirable to hire professionals in this field who will help you establish the whole process and organize the correct work with clients.

Before official employment, arrange probation at least for a week. This will help to understand how the future employee treats the client, whether he is able to provide the level of service you set.

Basic recruitment requirements:

• Having your own car;
• Competent Russian written and oral speech;
• Responsibility;
• sociability;
• Activity;
• Reliability.

fixed costs	Salary	The number of employees	Sum	Average salary per month per employee
Supervisor	20 000	1	20 000	32 822
Courier	9 500	4	38 000	25 528
Insurance premiums			17 400
Total payroll			75 400

7. Financial plan

8. Risk factors

Before you enter this business, you should know what dangers may lie in wait on the path to success. When opening a courier service, it is important to remember the following difficulties.

Have you heard of FedEx, DHL, UPS? If so, then, for sure, you or your friends used their services. Would you like to open your own courier service?

If yes, then this article will be useful for you and tell you how to do it.

Especially for the preparation of the article, we interviewed three experts and found out as open courier delivery service. Meet our guests:

• Alexey Prygin, Deputy CEO MaxiPost. Company specialization- Express delivery goods from online stores.
• Sergey Nevzorov, founder of the service Department of Logistics.
• Zhurabek Turdiev, director of the BTS Express courier service. The company specializes in express delivery of documents, correspondence, parcels up to 3 kg within Uzbekistan.

The article was written jointly with our experts and with their active participation. This made it possible to obtain detailed, more complete first-hand information about the opening of a courier service.

How to prepare for the opening?

As with any business, you need to preliminary analysis market. The information received should include:

• Target audience, demand from its side. Who is your potential client what services he needs, what he will expect from you.
• Information about competitors and their activities.
• Current market conditions. What niches are still relatively free and other information.

This is the first. The second is the choice of niche and services. After studying the market, you may want to develop a courier service in a narrow specific niche. Or you prefer to specialize in the delivery of certain packages, for example, goods from online stores, food from restaurants.

Investment size

It all depends on the chosen niche and the services you are going to provide. Alexey Prygin, Deputy CEO of MaxiPost:

“Costs (start-up and monthly) are made up of the following costs:

• staff recruiting;
• purchase and branding of uniforms (if necessary);
• process automation;
• purchase cash registers(and their further maintenance);
• purchase or rental of vehicles (if necessary);
• communication (mobile, city, Internet);
• household and stationery goods;
• banking expenses (mainly collection);
• fuel (if necessary);
• salaries and taxes.

The main expenditure part in the "courier" - These are wages and taxes.

The competitive struggle in the courier services market is going through the roof now and will only grow further, open new business in this area is worth, if you have a good start-up investment, a “cushion” for the future and experience in this area.”

MaxiPost has the following format - delivery of goods from online stores. If you don't buy vehicles, then the investment required is relatively small. But! You need to be ready for subsequent financial injections in order to stay in the market and continue to grow.

But BTS Express required significant investment to launch and grow their courier service.

Zhurabek Turdiev

Director of BTS Express

As can be seen from the two examples, the volume of investments can differ by several times. Much depends on the niche and the services provided. But both of our guests agree that the continued existence and growth of the company will require regular funding.

Step-by-step instruction

As mentioned above, the opening of a courier service begins with determining the portrait of the client, his needs, expectations. Based on this data, you need to decide on a niche and a specific list of services that your company will provide.

After finding out these key points, you can think about what the investments will go to, how to build the business further, what geography of service you will have.

Staff. Hiring, training, motivation, relationships

Our guest Aleksey Prygin, Deputy General Director of MaxiPost, talks about working with personnel:

The staff of couriers is one of the very first steps in organizing a courier service. To form it, you need:

Recruit couriers, having previously calculated their number and load based on the planned sales volume and sales schedule;

Train couriers by developing a training system in advance, including the ability to communicate, work with cash registers, follow the rules cash discipline etc.;

Develop a system of motivation and control of couriers: how will you pay them - fixed or piecework? How to calculate the premium part - based on the number of redeemed or delivered parcels? How will you control their work and nullify the risks of unscrupulous performers, which is especially important given that the courier is a financially responsible person?

The motivation system for couriers should be built based on the company's business goals. For example, in our company in the first place is not the quantity, but the quality of delivery, the percentage of redemption of delivered parcels. So everything is sharpened exclusively for this KP

Zhurabek Turdiev

Director of BTS Express:

When working with personnel, the main attention and efforts should be directed to couriers, because the courier:

• The face of the company, and he mostly communicates with customers and package recipients.
• It largely depends on him how and in what condition the parcel will be delivered.
• The courier is a financially responsible person.

When selecting couriers, we look at the following points:

• Filling out the questionnaire. Is it full to the end? If yes, then it means serious attitude to the candidate's case and that he wants to work in our company.
• Ability to communicate. Is the person easy to contact, not aggressive or rude.
• Age and driver's license. Only young people work as couriers in our company.

We have a month of probation. During this period, we pay attention to other indicators of couriers:

1. How does the courier handle documents? Is everything filled out on time? Are reports submitted on time?
2. Compliance with set schedules.
3. Ability to communicate with customers and recipients of parcels.
4. Feedback from customers and employees. If the courier is rude, breaks the rules, customers and employees complain about him, then such a person does not stay with us.

We also have a system of training and adaptation. It allows the beginner to quickly join the business and successfully complete their tasks.

A separate conversation is motivation. We need purposeful people, and we promote them to higher positions, if, of course, the employee has a desire.

The basic principle of building relationships with couriers, and with all employees of the company, is to let them know that they are valuable and that their work is important not only for the company, but also for customers and society. And the most important thing is not just to make it clear, but to prove it in practice day after day.

At the initial stage, it is better to focus on attracting and high-quality service of the Nth number of first customers. I would recommend starting with 200 clients. This approach will allow:

1. identify weaknesses in your business and eliminate them,
2. understand the expectations and needs of your customers,
3. based on the feedback further develop your marketing strategy.

Promotion channels may be different. You need to take into account the specifics of your niche and focus on customers.

Zhurabek Turdiev, director of BTS Express says:

In our case, SEO works well, mailing commercial offers by organizations word of mouth. Social media we mainly use to collect feedback.

In choosing a promotion channel, you need to proceed from the characteristics of customers. Namely, to know:

• Through what channels of communication can they be reached.
• Through which channels potential customers are already looking for information about you.

The niche and services provided by your courier service play a major role in deciding where to place your office and warehouse.

For example, food delivery from restaurants does not require a warehouse, because the parcel is delivered straight from the kitchen to the recipient. A similar situation is with the delivery of parcels within the city, because. delivery is carried out within a few hours.

But in the case of long-distance delivery, the presence of a warehouse is mandatory.

Zhurabek Turdiev

Director of BTS Express

When choosing a place, we took into account the following criteria:

• Convenient location for customers, because some of our clients come to the office to send a parcel. Also, some recipients pick up the parcel from the office. This is an economy rate with pickup from our offices. The main thing is that it is convenient for customers to drive up to us, it is easy to find us, and that there is parking.
• The proximity of the airport, because To increase the speed of delivery, we send parcels to remote cities by air.

Sufficient space for the work of all departments (reception, warehouse, administration). This applies only to the central office in Tashkent. Offices in the regions are simpler

Documentation

The courier service can be registered as an LLC or an individual entrepreneur. LLC is convenient for the following:

• Investors are more willing to invest in a business, because can act as co-founders. Banks are also more willing to lend.
• More trust from organizations. It matters if organizations are your potential customers.

IP has the following advantages:

• Easy to register.
• You can pay taxes on the "simplified". Tax reporting is easier.

The choice of legal form is at the discretion of the business owner. Company registration is one of the most simple steps when opening a courier service.

Opening checklist

Is it profitable to open

To answer this question, consider the following:

• Courier service as a business is a long-term business project. There is no quick way to "make money" here. Like factories, courier services do not give a return immediately, but after a while. Starting a courier business, you need to be ready for a marathon, not a sprint.
• Much depends on the chosen niche and the services provided, the situation on the market.

Alexey Prygin, Deputy General Director of MaxiPost:

Services in general are rarely a high-margin business, and in an unfavorable scenario (and now this is exactly the case), the difference between the tariff and the cost tends to zero. It is very difficult to increase this gap: to raise the price means losing customers, and it is very difficult to reduce the cost.

Zhurabek Turdiev

Director of BTS Express

We were able to reach operating profit only in the fifth year of development. There is still time until full self-sufficiency. The proceeds are invested in development. Courier services are a long-term business. You need to have a fair amount of patience to raise such an enterprise.

seasonality

As in a number of industries, there is seasonality in the courier business. It is associated with the period of commercial activity of the population before significant holidays and other events:

• New Year
• February 23
• March 8
• Black Friday, etc.

Alexey Prygin

Deputy General Director MaxiPost

Courier business subject to seasonality, which directly depends on the surge in sales in online stores. The hottest season for courier services is New Year. Even if you whole year you are interrupted from order to order, from the end of November you will not be bored. Our people will never stop buying gifts for this holiday, so there is always a chance to make a good turnover in one month. December is guaranteed earnings. And then there are February 23, March 8, black Fridays, Cyber ​​Mondays, preparation for school in August and a bunch of all sorts of more or less successful seasons and sales that provide couriers with a reliable income.

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Organizations daily need to send correspondence, goods and cargo using couriers. Therefore, debutant entrepreneurs are thinking about how to open a courier delivery service, bypassing the existing "pitfalls". In addition, to open and develop such a company does not need huge financial investments.

Existing services do not fully satisfy the demand for goods delivery services, therefore, such a business is a sought-after direction for novice merchants.

Often the delivery of goods by mail occurs with long delays. Good money is charged for urgency. Many begin to look for such a service, and some are thinking about how to open such a business.

Creating a company for the delivery of goods: the first steps

If you are a law-abiding entrepreneur, then you must follow the order in starting a business:

• initially it is necessary to open and visit the tax authority for the official registration of the delivery company;
• then - a bank in order to open a current account of its own service.

This concludes the basic legal formalities for business. The next stage is the solution of material issues, without which it is impossible to open a delivery company:

• office;
• equipment: computer, telephone, car;
• advertising.

The ideal office is its own space. If you do not have enough money to buy, then use the lease. To open a delivery establishment, it is not necessary to look for an office in the city center.

Without technical support, a courier company will not be able to work. Computers, telephone and Internet connections, vehicles are needed. You can use your own car or rent.

But it is impossible to open or organize a profitable delivery business with one car. Several cars, mopeds, scooters or bicycles are needed. The latter will be useful during daytime traffic jams. An excellent solution is to hire couriers who have their own vehicles.